14 DAY TRIAL // Santa Claus came early to Softpedia this year and brought us our own Nintendo Wii U, not to mention a variety of games, including ZombiU, the brand new first-person shooter from Ubisoft made specifically for the new home console.
With high-definition graphics comparable to shooters on the PS3 or Xbox 360, not to mention all sorts of special features that take advantage of the Wii U's GamePad, ZombiU is definitely looking like the crown jewel of the new console in terms of third-party experiences.
Does it deliver with great gameplay or is it just another generic shooter with a few gimmicks? Let's find out.
ZombiU begins by showing off a zombie-infested London and a lone survivor – the player – who flees to a subway (underground) station in order to escape the menace. At the request of an old man who speaks to you only through a headset, you must then perform a variety of tasks in the city in order to ensure your mutual survival.
While the whole premise is rather simple, the mechanics are much more complex, as you carry with you a special Prepper Pad, which is actually the Wii U's GamePad. It helps you interact with your weapons and items, as well as your actual inventory, once you get hold of a backpack.
Being a zombie survival game, you'll soon have to fight the undead, which can be done in several ways. You start off armed with a bat, a cricket one in British tradition, that can be used to bash the skulls of the unlucky undead you meet along the way.
You also get your hands on a pistol but, just like in The Walking Dead game, for example, you don't have a lot of ammo and each shot draws more zombies to your location.
Luckily, you get to use the GamePad as a radar, in order to see just where the undead are on the mini-map. You also get to use it as a sort of analyzer by pointing it at the screen and hovering over certain things, from doors to bodies, and other such things.
Overall, ZombiU is looking pretty good, although it's going to take some time to get used to its special features and the novel GamePad of the Wii U.
You can check out the shooter in action in the video above.